Hi guys! I'm back! So sorry that this was such a long time coming, I've had some major things happen in my life so my focus shifted slightly. But now I'm and ready to write again. I hope you all enjoy!
They were horribly outnumbered. As Dan saw it they only had two options: 1) Fight their way out. The fact that they had powers was to a great advantage to them, and they might be able to hold their own for a while. But they would be revealing themselves. 2) Go with them. These people were total strangers to them (Which could be considered a good or bad thing) but they weren't exactly subtle with their entrance, which worried him because they might just be reckless.
So, far the former was looking much more appealing to him.
He was about to let down his guard and let is hands catch flame when a younger boy from the back of the group spoke up, "I wouldn't do that if I were you. Even if you could get past all of us, there's nowhere for you to go. We have this place surrounded and your car has been impounded. We want you."
A shiver ran down Phil's spine, they way that this boy spoke made him sound like he was much older than his age.
"What do you want with us?" Phil asked bravely.
The leader smirked at them, "You'll see."
They weren't lying, the building was surrounded by young people just like the group inside the motel room. For the second time in just a few days, Dan and Phil were cuffed and being lead to an unknown were getting kind of sick of it.
As they were being lead through the parking lot, Dan noticed that there were no running cars waiting for them. One of the members of the group leading them, noticed Dan looking around quizzically. "Our location is a inaccessible by car. We'll have to reach it on foot." He answered Dan before he could even ask the question. It was so strange, everyone seemed to know what they were going to ask before they even had a chance to voice their thoughts.
The group lead them away from the motel and crossed the parking lot, instead of turning right to exit the lot and continue down the side road, they instead were directed left towards the wooded area that sprawled on the backside of the hotel.
Dan looked down at his and Phil's torn jeans and less than desirable walking shoes, he rolled his eyes, this was not going to be fun.
Phil shivered still stuck in his thin t-shirt, for once he envied Dan's powers and how he never seemed to be cold anymore.
The group came to a gradual incline as they continued their trek through the woods, Dan huffed as he hadn't encountered this much exercise since his annual jog that he took around London.
Dan glanced around to try and take a look at his surroundings, the trees grew thicker and closer together as they continued further into the woods. There were still un-melted patches of snow under the shade of the trees the dappled sunlight made it hard for even Dan to stay warm but the group of kids didn't show any signs of being uncomfortable. Phil, on the other hand, couldn't stop quivering from the cold.
More and more people appeared from between the trees and silently joined the group as they hiked, nobody had spoken a word since leaving the parking lot.
"Where are they coming from?" Dan wondered out loud. His question was left unanswered and they returned to uncomfortable silence.
The sun was sinking in the horizon by the time the group slowed down, "We're here," someone from the back announced. Needless to say, both Dan and Phil were very underwhelmed. They spent the entire day hiking through a freezing cold forest to find themselves at an old abandoned warehouse and a tent.
"Are you sure?" Dan said cynically under his breath, luckily the group was too busy disbanding to hear him. Everyone around them busied themselves doing some kind of housekeeping chore. A pair of small girls were looking for clean patches of snow to collect in buckets (probably to be melting down into water later) another group of teenage boys and girls were gathering dry pieces of wood.
"Dan and Phil," a voice caused their heads to turn. They both recognized him as the leader of the group from before, "My name is Aaron. Follow me, please." The first thing that they noticed about Aaron was his eyes, one was strikingly blue and the other was a deep brown, tattoos ran up his neck and probably covered the rest of his unexposed skin, his head was completely buzzed. His whole menacing demeanor made Phil stay more than a step behind him.
Aaron lead them the rest of the way up the small hill and stopped on the concrete slab between the warehouse and tent. The tent looked like one you would see at an outside wedding venue; it was large but there was nothing cheerful about this one.
The warehouse didn't look much better, almost all of the windows were broken and every piece of exposed metal was covered in rust.
"Nice place you've got here." Dan said, once again, under his breath.
If Aaron heard him, he gave no indication that he did. "You two will be sleeping here tonight." He continued, pushing through the white plastic flaps to enter the tent and waft of foul smelling air greeted them as they walked through. Inside, they found rows of thin sleeping bags lying on the concrete ground that lined the walls of the tent. There were some individuals milling around and just looking bored in general. A few people looked up but nobody seemed to give Dan or Phil a second glance.
Aaron walked along a row of sleeping bags until he came to a spot about halfway down, "This is where you'll be staying tonight. Do not wander. Do not explore. If you run, we will catch you. Goodnight." He turned on his heel and began to walk back in the direction they came.
Dan looked down at the lone sleeping bag at his and Phil's feet, and not to mention that there were people sleeping on both sides of them. Dan was very unsatisfied with what he saw, "Um, excuse me, Aaron. There seems to be only one sleeping bag here and I'm not sure if you noticed but there's two of us."
"You'll make do with what we give you." Aaron said sharply over his shoulder, not even bothering to turn back around to them.
After he left, Dan looked around trying to make eye contact with the people around them, but they were all expertly avoiding his line of vision. Across the tent, he spotted a teenage boy curled up in the corner, it was as good an opportunity to get answers as they were going to get. Dan nudged Phil and pointed across the floor, they made their way over tiptoeing over sleeping bags and buckets of stale water.
Approaching the boy, they saw that he was no older than fifteen, his hair was long and shaggy, there was a thin line of sweat broken out over his pale forehead. They knelt down near him, careful not to get too close.
"Hi," Dan said without bothering to introduce the two of them, "Can you tell me how long you've been here?"
He didn't respond.
"We're not going to hurt you; we just want to know why we're all here." Phil tried, a bit more gently this time.
The boy was silent for a few more moments looking up at them through narrowed eyes, "You two are so naïve. They're listening, always listening." He looked around, lowered his voice and continued once more, "They want you because you're different. We're all different."
Dan swallowed and tried to obliviously ask, "Different? How do you mean?"
The boy rolled his eyes and scoffed, "You know exactly what I mean."
Dan stood up and backed away, "No. I don't," He paused, "Thank you for your help."
"What the hell was that about?" Phil asked in a rare burst of profanity. He looked around suspiciously at the people around him, few had picked up their heads in order to eavesdrop in on their conversation, others just smirked to themselves.
Dan shrugged, suddenly aware that any conversation that they had was far from private. "I don't know. It's late, and I'm exhausted though." He kneeled down and slithered into the sleeping bag.
"Where am I going to sleep, though?" Phil whispered.
Dan sighed and moved as far over as he could in order to make room for his friend. Phil wriggled down into the bag next to Dan, "This isn't so bad," He said hopefully.
Dan laughed, "Phil, you and I are both unbelievably long, there is no way we'll be comfortable."
Phil let out a small laugh but it gave way to a cringe as he shivered down in the bag. The plastic of the tent did little to protect them from the harsh cold winds outside.
"Oh, are you cold?" Dan asked. He pulled his hands out from under his head where he was using them as a pillow and let them begin to warm up. He placed them around Phil and started to rub them along his arms and down his back, "Oh my god, Phil! You're freezing, and even I can feel that."
Phil looked at him and smiled, "Much better. Thank you."
Dan kept one of his hands resting on top of Phil's just in case he got too cold again, and Phil snuggled down into the cocoon of warmth that Dan had created for them. Neither of them could remember their eyes closing, but they both found they were comfortable enough that they didn't move all night.